Will it fill the world with the most heartless soleless AI generated garbage? Possibly.

I was watching the Google IO Conference Highlights and I remember seeing the Veo 2, among several other announcements, and I remember thinking “Wow, nothing will be authentic any more”. No more actors, no more voice over actors, no more visual artists, it will all be made by heartless machines.

That was my first thought but I have had some time to think about it and I want to tell you a few stories for historical context. Way back in 1982 the movie Tron was disqualified from the oscars for using computer aided graphics. Compared to today’s standard action film Tron’s usage of CG was nothing. Should they have been disqualified from the Oscars? Was that justified?

Another more modern story is the story of the brilliant actor Andy Serkis. You may not recognize his name or face but you likely have seen his amazing acting performances on the big screen at some point. Have you heard of a little movie franchise called “Lord Of The Rings”? His performance of the key character “Gollumn” was recorded via motion capture. That is not the end of his motion capture performances. The newer Planet Of The Apes franchise, King Kong and plenty more motion capture performances are on his resume yet to date he has no oscars nor Oscar nominations for what most would consider a pretty prolific career. Is this justified? Because the light bouncing off of his skin never hits the audience's eyes?

I am actually torn on this whole thing and mainly wanted to give you some good food for thought. I am fairly confident that this technology will lead to billions of hours of heartless fluff but anyone that has ever swiped through instagram will see thousands of hours of gym selfies and pics of meals that are essentially heartless fluff.

There is more and more noise every day whether it be AI generated or just poorly produced garbage by a human but…

Let me end this on an optimistic note and introduce you to Joel Haver. Joel creates short skits on YouTube with little more than a computer, a camera and a few friends. Some of his most popular videos are actually in part AI generated. Not from scratch like Veo 2 but instead he films his skit with a normal camera and a few makeshift props that resemble foam taped to hockey sticks. He can take that footage and turn it into live action cartoons essentially. He uses this method and some amazing story telling to transport you to his own little cinematic universe full of interesting but seemingly hand drawn characters that come to life. Joel's videos are full of heart and just enough visual alteration to remove the immersion breaking fact that his laser blaster is likely a hair dryer.

These AI tools are leveling the playing field. I just watched the latest Marvel cash grab and I will likely never watch that again. A bunch of slop designed by committee and used more as a tool to sell products to this demographic or that demographic. Big movie franchises are already using over the top CG and effects to try to cover up for the fact they are telling stories that have no heart, stories that we have all seen 1000 times. I mean, how many Fast and Furious movies and spin offs do we need?

Why shouldn’t small independent film makers have the ability to use CG to tell their own stories? Stories written primarily to make you and your friends (in person or on the internet) laugh? Stories with humor so niche only a handful of people around the world will ever watch them, but stories worth telling none the less.

What are your thoughts on the generative AI revolution? Good, bad, or something else? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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